Here's some Holiday Cheer!

So I guess I'm not really all that far behind.  I had to take the camera around a little this morning to remind me what fun we are having as we prepare for Christmas.

Here is my spruced up garland.  I don't get too artsy-crafty, so I'm pretty proud of this one ;).  You can see Ben's blurry running body in the background, and Bryan's crawling head going for the plug.  

We made cinnamon dough ornaments today!  I've been wanting to do this for a long time.  I can't wait until they are dry so we can hang them on the tree.  They smell so good!  I found an old jar of applesauce in my cupboard that was best by 2009...yeah, put it to good use here!

Ben loved helping me cut out the cookies.  I think he was a little bummed that we weren't going to be eating them, but he had a blast with the cookie cutters anyway.  Poor kid gets a little gypped because I almost never make cookies (the old gluten-intolerance...).

We also made peppermint bark.  We did this last year and loved it.  It's always been on of my favorite holiday candies, and it is super easy.  Ben's favorite part was smashing the candy canes and scooping the chocolate chips in and out of the container.  Here it is cooling - I'll break it into pieces and share with neighbors soon.

Another first for the season was caramel cracker-jack style popcorn.  I think it turned out pretty well!  I'm not usually patient enough to bake it for an hour, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it turned out to be.  I did it on a day that I had to be home anyway and it was no big deal!

Ben is totally in love with popcorn.  Must take after his momma.  We've been using popcorn as a potty treat.  When he does his business in the toilet we get to make popcorn.  We've made popcorn every day this week!! (part of what inspired me to try the caramel).

And here is what is going on behind the camera.  One busy baby!

Oh so behind...

I've been blog stalking a little tonight and enjoying all my friends festive and fun sounding holidays.  I feel so behind!  I just ordered Christmas cards today, so you will probably receive yours after Christmas....  I have a few more things to catch on Amazon 2-day shipping before the Big Man in Red arrives!

Isn't it the most wonderful time of year?

Truly I have been enjoying the holiday season.  I love all the music - and I've been playing my flute in a lot of it which is one of my favorite things, though hard on the family for Mom to be so busy.  The food, oh yes, wonderful.  Ben is enchanted with the lights and music and fun of it all.  He gets to meet Santa on Monday, so we'll see how much he likes him in person this year ;).

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2011

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Halloween!

 These are our garden-grown pumpkins!

 Cow Ben

Duck Bryan

We <3 Costco!

Bryan got his first ride in the seat of a shopping cart today. He loved it!  It made shopping so much easier for me too.

Tomato worm

There are perils in the garden like this mammoth flesh eating blood sucking hair curling tomato worm.  Well, it really only eats tomato leaves, but it sure is ugly!  You can see it's munching down my plant pretty hard.  I sprayed it today - it'll be dead by tomorrow.  Heh heh hehhh.

Rice Krispies!

The much anticipated day has arrived! Kellogg's has finally come out with their gluten-free rice krispies. We heard rumors of the release several months ago but I did a little dance when I found them in the grocery store the other day! I bought a bunch and immediately made rice krispy treats!

It was about time for Ben to have that classic childhood experience. He loved it - especially cleaning out the bowl :)

Today's Harvest

We got some potatoes! Not a ton, but they are beautiful.  :)

Eating Zucchini

Oh this was good! Spring Risotto with zucchini and peas. I'm going to do a zucchini and tomato frittata maybe for dinner tomorrow or breakfast/brunch on the weekend. I've also got plans for a gf chocolate zucchini cake and some zucchini cookies.

In other garden consumption news, we had awesome sandwiches today: turkey pesto (garden basil) with garden tomatoes. So tasty! I used up the last of my gf bread, though, so I've either got to indulge again and buy another loaf, or...probably just indulge again ;).

We love garden produce! It must be the sweat that makes it taste so good...

The corn is as high as an elephants eye!

This is one happy gardener :)

What!

Ah, Zucchini season...

Yard Renovation: Day 12

The last day of our project!

Friday morning looked like this: all prepped for sod

We took a break from the dirt to go to the pool with our friends! It was a welcome break from the construction.

Then we came home around 1:00 pm to this!

Yeay hurray!!! The sprinkler guys had to come back one more time this morning to fix the last broken pipe, but otherwise they were done by about 4:00 on Friday.

I still have all these plants to put in the backyard, so I'm heading outside to get going!!

Yard Renovation: Day 11

Thursday was plant day! They finished putting in bed borders, finished grading the lawn area, and continued to adjust sprinklers and drains.

About 11:00 am the truck arrived with our plant delivery. We laid them out about where we wanted them and the guys got to work planting them. We went back and tweaked some of the things we just didn't quite like. It's a lot easier to move things yourself than try to explain to someone who doesn't speak good English exactly where you want it. I kept saying a little more this way, now a little more that way. I'm sure the guys thought I was very particular...

Front yard bed with some of the lawn grading done, and part of the bed border in.

Plants arrived! And a nice big pile of smelly compost.

Ben loved the plants, and helping with the planting. Hopefully the workers didn't think he was too underfoot...

Here most of the plants are in. They ran into a sprinkler pipe where the date palm was supposed to go, so they had to finish that one in the morning after the sprinkler guy could move the pipe.

Yard Renovation: Day 10

Today the guys finished up the sprinklers and beds, moved the fireplace (though it still needs a little work), and added compost to the yard. It's really starting to take shape now! We'll probably have the sod installed either tomorrow or Friday!

Ben the foreman explaining in fluent Spanish where to put the fireplace: ;) Actually, I kept trying to get him to say little Spanish phrases (hola, buen dia, etc) but he wouldn't. He wouldn't say anything in English either. A little shy of strangers.

It was fun to watch them disassemble the fireplace and move it in pieces over to its new home.

This arrived today. It's making our house and yard smell like poo, but that's a good thing ;).

In the hour or so I was cleaning the kitchen, it went from this:

to this. I was amazed how fast the ground changed. They did some more raking and leveling and I think it's all ready for sod!

There are still some sprinkler issues in the front. I felt bad for the guy up to his elbows in mud trying to repair a bunch of pipe breaks from removing the tree...